The Senator for Embu Peter Ndwiga has ditched Deputy President William Ruto’s UDA party after losing in the nominations to Deputy Governor David Kariuki.

Ndwiga has said he will defend his seat as an independent candidate instead.

He cited massive irregularities in the UDA party primaries despite the preparations the party made ahead of the primaries.

Ndwiga claimed that he could have garnered more than the 19,062 he got if more votes, but did not because many Embu voters did not cast their votes.

He said he does not regret his move to ditch the Jubilee party of which he was initially a member, claiming that Embu is a Kenya Kwanza zone.

Kariuki got 27,000 votes in the nominations that were held last week beating Ndwiga with 7,938 votes.

Ndwiga is among UDA candidates who were not satisfied with the nomination results and opted to ditch the parties and move ahead as independent candidates.